OMAN: An
Original Foreign Policy

Long
considered as a high conservative and pro-Western
country, Oman has quietly developed an original
foreign policy, the most striking feature of which
is probably its balanced policy towards revolutionary
Iran. At first, Sultan Qabus regarded Khomeini’s
regime with a deep suspicion. The Shah of Iran had
been a close friend who had sent his troops in the
mid-1970s to help Oman crush a Marxist-inspired
guerilla war in Dhofar. After the start of the Gulf
war, Sultan Qabus feared that the Iranians would
try to occupy Ras Musandam, Oman’s stronghold
on the Arab side of the straits. It was Rashid Abdullah,
the UAE’s minister of state for foreign affairs,
who first built a bridge between the two countries,
telling the Iranians not to consider Oman necessarily
as an American ally and that it was worth trying
to speak to the ruler and convince him to start
a dialogue with the Iranians. That led Oman to adopt
aa more open stance towards Iran at Muscat GCC summit
in November 1985.

Oman's Neutrality

Explaining Oman’s “neutrality”
in the Gulf war, Seyid Haitham bin Tarek, Sultan
Qabus’ undersecretary for foreign affairs,
says that “it makes common sense, when you
look at how this war started, and what is its outcome.
Moreover, do not forget that Iran is a Moslem country.
And our national interest was not threatened”.

Showing
an infrequent comprehension of Iran’s revolution,
which was partly provoked, he says, by the Shah’s
“neglect of rural areas” Seyid Haitham
bin Tarek emphasises that it was a “revolution
that had not had the time to mature because the
war started almost immediately after”.

The Sultan’s undersecretary for foreign affairs
would not make any comment on Iraq, saying only
that the Iraqis, who are “sensitive”
about Oman’s dialogue with Iran, however “understood
our aims” and accepted that it was “kept
at exactly the same level” with both countries.

It is interesting to note how Omani citizens who
hold no official position and have no reason to
be diplomatic are quite frank about their feelings
towards Iraq and Iran. “It’s clear that
Iraq attacked Iran”, says a young Omani intellectual,
who claims that most people in Oman feel their country
should be neutral between Iraq and Iran. “
We do not trust Saddam Hussain”, he says.
“We remember his support to the Dhofar uprising,
and we know he is a merciless dictator”. On
the other hand, this young man, who is part of the
Omani establishment, and by now way subversive in
his way of thinking, objects to the “unfair
treatment” by the Western press of the Iranian
revolution. He wonders “how we can choose
between a so-called socialist Iraq that we know
too well, and a government of Islam that has not
had the time to establish itself”. Expressing
the hope that the Iranians understand that “it
was not a war with the Arabs, but with Iraq”,
he concludes, “How could we choose between
Arabism and Islam? It is a big choice”.

A conciliatory posture towards Iran

Hard
facts have also pushed Oman to adopt a more conciliatory
posture towards Iran. Of all the GCC states, Oman
is the only one to have waged war in recent times,
and it is obviously an experience nobody wants to
repeat. “We know what war means”, says
a top-brass Omani officer. “We had it twice
-- in northern Oman in the mid-1950s, and in Dhofar
in the late 1960s and the early 1970s. We do not
like war. Without these wars Oman would not be a
backward country. We would have overtaken the Saudis”.

Omani leaders also feel that with a total population
of less then 10 million people, the GCC countries
cannot seriously contemplate acting against Iran
-- a nation of 50 million people. “We are
not a power which can go into a war. Kuwait is not
a big power and it should not have spoken like a
big power”, says one Omani official.

Oman went quite a long way to avoid being dragged
into the conflict. As Seyid Haitham bin Tarek revealed
to this reporter, the Omani navy was, during the
recent conflict, “under orders from Sultan
Qabus to keep away from any contact with the Iranian
gunboats when they were chasing tankers. The conflict
was not with Oman. And if we had retaliated, we
would have sparked a new conflict”.

Oman’s caution towards Iran also shows in
its relations with the United States. A special
agreement gives the Americans the right to preposition
military equipment on Masirah island, but Washington
has to get permission from Oman every time it wants
to use it. According to a western military observer,
the United States would most likely get permission
during a conflict with the Soviet Union, but not
against Iran. Sultan Qabus is far too afraid of
a repetition of the events which took place in Lebanon.
“The United States would pull out for political
reasons, and let the Omanis face the consequences”.

Recently, there have been a number of contacts
between Iran and Oman. Ali Akbar Velayati, the Iranian
foreign minister, has visited Muscat several times,,
as have deputies, Besharati and SheikholIslam. Yusuf
al Alawi, the Omani minister of state for foreign
affairs, went last year to Teheran, followed by
the Omani minister of trade. But these frequent
exchanges of views do not mean that Sultan Qabus
is going all the way towards Iran. “Iran is
presently the most unpredictable place in the Middle
East”, remarks an Omani official, “so
we are not keen to give Iran everything at
the same time. We give tit for tat. They must show
that they are willing to pacify the area, that they
are not supporting terrorists; the peace talks at
Geneva must progress, and any seeds of another war
must be eliminated”.

Since Bahrain has been chairman of the GCC, it
is conducting most contacts with Iran, Iraq and
the UN secretary-general. But this does not prevent
Oman developing its bilateral relations with Iran,
with the hope it can contribute towards a definitive
settlement of the Gulf war. During recent contacts
with West European visitors -- Sir Geoffrey Howe,
the British foreign secretary, and the commander
of the French fleet in the Indian Ocean -- Sultan
Qabus stressed that there is a “new element”
in the area (the cease-fire) and that foreign fleets’
visits in the Gulf should again be “discreet
and friendly”.